Birmingham prostitutes, clients will be shamed on TV in council's plan

The Birmingham City Council today approved a resolution to shame prostitutes and their clients by placing their pictures on a public access cable channel upon conviction.

The "shame campaign" seeks to focus attention on the problem of prostitution in certain areas of the city by embarrassing the prostitutes and their patrons, said Councilwoman Carol Duncan, the campaign's creator.

The council passed a resolution approving the campaign and is sending an ordinance it drafted to the city's law department to make sure it passes legal muster, Duncan added.

City Attorney Tamara Harris Johnson said convictions are a matter of public record and the dissemination of that information would be legal. But she added her department hasn't received the council's resolution or its ordinance.

Duncan said she didn't know when the broadcasts would begin.
William C. Singleton III